


i will take your hand and we'll rise up from the dust

by eynn



Series: i can't go back and lose it all [9]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Fix-It, Gen, Nobody Dies, Order 66, as soon as they can get the council braincell holder and the rogue sith gang braincell holder, everyone finally meets and palpatine's going down, sith!jedi order, to combine the braincells so they can make a plan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:47:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23309377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eynn/pseuds/eynn
Summary: Barriss Offee, Jedi Knight, crawls on her hands and knees through a maintenance shaft older than Master Yoda. The entire Jedi Council, including said Master Yoda, is following her. He’s the only one who can actually walk in the small shaft.She hasn’t been down this way for years, not since she was a youngling with – with her, playing at evading their caretakers and being Real Jedi on an Adventure. Now she is shuffling along, dust and filth gathering on her robe and her headdress, trying to remember the turns they need to take to reach the tiny hatch that leads into a drain that leads to an abandoned warehouse complex in the lower levels of Coruscant.
Relationships: Barriss Offee & Luminara Unduli, Barriss Offee/Ahsoka Tano (one-sided) (mentioned)
Series: i can't go back and lose it all [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1658362
Comments: 31
Kudos: 1162





	i will take your hand and we'll rise up from the dust

Barriss Offee, Jedi Knight, crawls on her hands and knees through a maintenance shaft older than Master Yoda. The entire Jedi Council, including said Master Yoda, is following her. He’s the only one who can actually walk in the small shaft.

She hasn’t been down this way for years, not since she was a youngling with – with _her_ , playing at evading their caretakers and being Real Jedi on an Adventure. Now she is shuffling along, dust and filth gathering on her robe and her headdress, trying to remember the turns they need to take to reach the tiny hatch that leads into a drain that leads to an abandoned warehouse complex in the lower levels of Coruscant.

She desperately wishes she was back then, a quarter of the size she is now and exploring with her friend, her fellow Initiate, the girl she would eventually develop such a crush on. Everything was brighter then, softer, kinder. The crechemasters were always there to carry them back when they eventually would tumble out of the vents, filthy and tired and giggling, and clean them up and put them to bed.

A junction comes up, and she hesitates for a moment before picking a direction that her instincts like and going forward. She remembers the way dimly, but some of the details have been lost over time.

She wonders how they managed to forget each other after they left the creche. She hadn’t even recognized her when they were introduced on Geonosis.

Barriss sighs. She knows how they forgot each other. She just doesn’t want to think about it.

It’s that Sith Lord clouding their minds. He’d wormed his way into hers, even, made her think that Master Luminara hated her and wanted to be rid of her, that the Council was deliberately sending their clones off to die and ignoring anything anyone else said.

She’d even been considering doing something drastic at the Temple. It turned out that someone else had fallen to the Sith Lord’s manipulations and bombed it anyway. And they let Ahsoka take the blame when pinning it on her hadn’t worked because of Master Luminara’s quick and heated intervention.

When she finds the Sith Lord, she will enjoy killing them slowly and painfully, and she will feel no remorse for it.

How dare they pit her against the one she loves? How dare they ruin any possibility of her ever being able to tell Ahsoka how she feels about her?

It wasn’t until they had survived that assault on the droid factory on Geonosis, huddled inside the tank with one working lightsaber between them and both with concussions, that Barriss had begun to remember playing with Ahsoka in the creche. It wasn’t until she recovered from being taken over by the Geonosian brain worms that all her memories came back, and for a long time, they were still foggy.

By then, she’d already fallen for Ahsoka, and having the memory of knowing her younger self had only added to it. But it had been clear that Ahsoka had no obvious memories of their time in the creche together and did not appear to return her feelings.

Barriss hits her knee on a piece of something and hisses. The tunnel is beginning to slope down, which is good. They need to go down to get out.

“Looks like that shield doesn’t work down here,” she hears Master Windu mutter from some way behind her. “We’ll have to fix that after this is done.”

She bites her lip and continues, ignoring the pain in her knee.

~

It’s pitch-black in the lower tunnels, and none of them have lights except for their lightsabers. Jedi aren’t very practical. They shuffle along, spacing themselves out so nobody accidentally amputates a limb. Yoda is cackling softly and occasionally when one of them has to do something particularly ridiculous and contorted to squeeze through the tunnel.

“It’s a good thing we’re so flexible,” she hears from far behind her, echoing up. She doesn’t know who says it.

They’re all following her, all except Master Koon and Master Secura, who have stayed behind to protect Anakin and the Senator and Master Shmi in case the Temple is invaded. They need to keep Anakin unconscious until they find and deal with the Sith Lord, and Senator Amidala is in no condition to be crawling through tunnels. Master Shmi refused to leave either of them.

Sabé has come with them too. Rabé stayed behind to take care of the Senator.

Barriss controls her breathing. She might be leading almost the entire Jedi Council through a place she hasn’t been for years on a life-or-death mission to take down a deadly Sith Lord, but Luminara is there with her, and so there is no need to panic.

She does wonder how they’re going to find the Sith Lord, since they have no more idea of who or where he is than they did at the beginning of the war. The Force is still horribly cloudy around Coruscant, so they’re assuming he is somewhere on the planet and has been for years. Well, that’s what Master Yoda and Master Windu have agreed.

 _Ahsoka would be brilliant at this_ , her mind nags as she crawls forward through the grime and the dark. _She probably did this every week. She’d be able to find the Sith because she’s so brilliant and brave and amazing._

Barriss pauses briefly to swipe the annoying wetness away from her eyes with the hand that isn’t holding her saber. Now isn’t the time to be getting sentimental about how she wished her life had gone. It’s just that being in danger like this always reminds her of Ahsoka and when she got her so-precious memories of her back, in the dark and with adrenaline still flooding their bodies.

Now Ahsoka is gone, exiled from the Republic by order of the Senate and cast out of the Jedi Order by the order of the Senate on pain of the entire Order being accused as traitors. Not that that had done anything but stave off the inevitable, apparently.

Barriss hopes that the Jedi who were evacuated have made it to somewhere hidden and safe.

She’d hate to think that the group of them now are the last Jedi in the galaxy.

~

They’re deep under the Temple and she’s starting to sense air patterns and smells that mean there are hatches to the underbelly of Coruscant somewhere near when the light from her saber suddenly illuminates a face in front of her. She stops crawling just in time to not behead the person and tries her best to scramble into a defensive position.

Yellow stripes and a flash of white teeth in the dark appear as the mystery person starts back and then grins at her.

“Hey, Barriss.”

It’s Master Vos.

“What’s going on?”

She feels Luminara right behind her, pressing up against her shoulders and back as she sits on her knees in the tunnel and holds her lightsaber out defensively.

“Luminara!”

“Quinlan,” she deadpans. “What brings you here?”

He shrugs, from what they can see in the dim white light. “Just barely escaped some maniacal clones with syringes, decided to come here and see what was going on. Couldn’t exactly walk up to the front door, so I started in this way, and here we are.”

“Do you know where the exit is?” Barriss asks.

“Sure, it’s not far. We only got here about an hour ago.”

“We?” Luminara says sharply.

What they can see of Vos looks slightly nervous, which puts them on edge. Quinlan Vos rarely looks nervous.

“Ah, well, I made some friends as I was being sent all over the place to help fight the Seps. They’re on our side now, I promise.”

“Now?” Barriss mutters, but Luminara ignores it.

“What took you so long? It’s been five days since the clones all became set on protecting us.”

Vos laughs, a hollow sound. “Is that what you call it? It’s been five days since Order 66 went out to all of them.”

“What’s that?”

“We’re not quite sure yet, but it was some kind of command directly from the Supreme High Commander of the GAR right into these chips they all have in their brains.”

Barriss blinks. The clones have slave chips? Surely not? Anakin would have hit the roof if he’d known, and he would have known if Obi-Wan had known, and if the Council had known, Obi-Wan would have known.

“They don’t know exactly what the chips are meant to do, but from the bits of their transmissions we managed to slice into, they’re devoting all their tech skills and time to working on them.” He hesitates. “All I know for sure is that Order 66 was a kill order for all Jedi.”

Barriss feels Luminara stop breathing for a moment, and she presses back against her former Master like she is still a child seeking reassurance after an unsettling day. Luminara’s arm goes around her and for a moment they just cling to each other.

She can feel the shock and sorrow and fear rippling along the tunnel and back as all the rest of them hear and understand what’s being said.

“A kill order for all Jedi,” Luminara repeats blankly. “No. Not – They could never. They wouldn’t. Gree wouldn’t –”

“I don’t think they had a choice,” Vos says bleakly. “Those chips are hardwired right into their brains, Luminara. From what we can tell, they’re set up not just to make them trackable and shut them down if they don’t do what they’re told. They can turn them into droids, basically.”

Barriss knows she’s holding on to Luminara’s arm too tightly, but she can’t make herself let go.

“Forward, we must go,” says Master Yoda from behind them. “To see you alive, Vos, it is good.”

“Yes,” Luminara whispers, and briefly tightens her arm before letting go. “We are not dead, little one, and they clearly did not obey the letter of the order.”

“What do you mean?” Vos says, folding back on himself in a way that looks painful and beginning to lead them towards the steady stream of fresh-ish air. Barriss focuses on his feet as they appear and disappear in front of her.

“They did sedate us all with the special knockouts for the better part of five days. We were completely defenseless. It could be argued that they ‘killed’ us and faked our deaths for us.”

“Huh,” he says.

“Of that I had not thought,” Master Yoda says.

~

Barriss can see the hatch that leads to freedom when Vos stops and turns his head to look over his shoulder at her, and at Luminara and Master Yoda crowded behind her.

“Um,” he says.

“Yes?” Master Yoda answers.

Vos looks almost sheepish. “I can explain this, I swear. They’re not going to harm us, they’re on our side now, in fact. I think. I mean, we all want the Sith Lord dead, right? They’ve pretty well burned all their bridges with him a while ago anyway.”

“What is going on?” Luminara asks sharply.

“I – oh, kriff. Look, you’ll understand when we’re out of here.”

He pops open the hatch in the ceiling of the tunnel and begins to climb out. A pair of dark-skinned hands reach down for him and help him out.

Barriss edges forward cautiously. The hands that reach for her, empty of any weapons and bare to the elbows, are covered in Zabrak tattoos.

She wrenches herself out of the grip of a cyborg Zabrak that can only be Darth Maul and spins around to put the wall at her back, holding her lightsaber out in front of her defensively.

Luminara comes up more quickly than she expects, and as soon as she sees the situation, wastes no time in backing up right beside her.

“It’s fine!” Vos is saying, hands up. “They’re our friends now, I swear! Back _off_ , Maul, for the love of the Force.”

Master Yoda jumps up and lands, ready to attack. Then a slow smile spreads over his face. “To see you, glad I am, Yan.”

Count Dooku edges out of the shadows on the other side of the warehouse and looks a little sheepishly at his old master. “Greetings, Master Yoda.”

Vos reaches down to help the next one up and soon enough they are all standing together, watching Dooku and Maul warily. Sabé is pushed into the middle of them, and she has her blaster in a white-knuckled grip. Barriss steadies her own grip on her lightsaber.

“Shall we call a truce?” Dooku offers. “We only seek the death of Darth Sidious, and after that, we shall be on our way.”

“We?” Obi-Wan says sharply, glaring at Maul.

Two more Zabrak come out of the shadows, along with Asajj Ventress.

“We,” Dooku says, indicating the five of them. “I betrayed Sidious when he ordered me to kill my apprentice. We went on the run. Later, by chance, we met Maul and his brothers and formed an alliance.”

The smaller Zabrak nods. “Savage and I have no quarrel with any Jedi,” he says. “Maul –”

“Can speak for himself,” he interrupts. “Kenobi. I will never forgive you for taking my legs, but my hatred of you is tiny compared to my absolute loathing of Sidious. I will not attack you for as long as it takes all of us to kill him and for me to leave.”

“I suppose that’s fair,” Master Windu says slowly.

Barriss watches with wide eyes. She can sense the sincerity echoing around all of their words. They really do just want revenge on Darth Sidious, and they are actually willing to ally themselves to the Jedi to get it done.

A tiny hysterical laugh breaks free from her lips. The Jedi. There are no Jedi in this rotting abandoned warehouse. There are only Sith.

Dooku stares at her.

She can’t see Master Windu’s face, but she hears grim amusement in his voice. “I believe Knight Offee is seeing the irony in this meeting,” he says. “Count Dooku, in the interest of a successful partnership in disposing of Sith Lord Sidious, I must tell you that you do not seek alliance with Jedi.”

Dooku blinks once, slowly, and his eyes dart to Master Yoda. Ventress shifts her weight slightly and eyes the exits. Maul steps back to cover his two smaller brothers, who look around him with puzzled expressions.

“This crisis has been long in the making, but it was only today that we all spoke together and admitted the truth to each other,” Master Windu continues, slow and heavy. “The Jedi Order is effectively no more. All of us have Fallen. Dark Jedi, Grey Jedi, or Sith, call us what you will, but none of us follow the Jedi Code any longer.”

“We believe it is a hindrance to us bringing peace and safety to as many worlds as we can manage,” Master Fisto says, stepping forward. “Our strict interpretation of it has led to horrible and irreversible damage to many of our kin. We are going to do our best to make amends for the pain it has caused.”

“Starting with the immediate rejection of the principle of never caring, loving, or becoming attached to anyone or anything.” Barriss is surprised, still, by the sheer amount of venom Luminara can put into those words. She’s usually calm and composed, but her fists are clenched, her eyes burning amber, and the dust around her feet is starting to tremble and float.

“We have Fallen because we love, not for greed or want of power for power’s sake,” Master Ti continues, folding her arms and staring Dooku down. “I Fell first of all because I could feel the Force screaming as the children on Kamino died for no reason. Whatever the Jedi had become in these last horrible years, it was damaging the Force just as surely as Darth Sidious is. I said no more.”

“No more,” Master Mundi echoes. “No more children sent to the front lines of war.”

“No more,” Master Yoda echoes again. “Ostracizing and silence, there will not be. Wrong, it is.”

“No more leaving anyone who does not fit into a predetermined mold to suffer and blame themselves with no help or hope of a better life,” Luminara adds. Barriss doesn’t know why she glances sidelong at Obi-Wan when she says it.

“No more taking families apart because a child is Force-sensitive,” he adds right after her.

“No more being the puppet of the Senate,” Master Tiin says.

A silence falls. Dooku is just staring at them. Ventress seems unsure whether to attack them or prop him up. The three Zabrak are still looking between them all warily.

“No more selfishness,” Barriss almost whispers. “No more denial. No more secrets and deciding how other people’s lives should go without letting them choose.”

“Did I just hear the Jedi Council say that they . . . love?” Dooku says. There’s a smirk on his face, but his tone doesn’t quite hit the jeer he seems to want it to.

“I myself am married quite happily and lovingly to my Commander,” Luminara snaps.

“I love my children,” Master Ti says, her eyes blazing dangerously. “Each and every identical one of them. They are mine, and I will take them away from Kamino and the atrocities committed there as soon as I have Darth Sidious’ head at my feet.”

“All my padawans, love I did,” Master Yoda says. “What they became, matter it did not. Show it, I was terrified to.” He smiles. “No longer.”

Master Windu clears his throat. “Now that that’s explained, we should get moving before the clones realize we’ve escaped.”

“Ah.” Dooku starts from where he’s been locked in a staredown with Master Yoda. “Yes.”

“So we’re going after the Chancellor?”

Barriss jumps. She’d forgotten Master Vos was there. So had everyone else, judging by their reactions. He grins at them.

“Suppose it’s time to tell y’all that I fell off the good Jedi path years ago,” he says, grinning hugely. “Welcome to freedom, my guys. And girls. And friends of unspecified gender. Now. Are we going right after the Chancellor or should we make a battle plan first?”

“We should free the Chancellor, yes,” Obi-Wan says. “He can recall this order given to the men, and –”

Vos sighs and bangs his head on the wall. “You just lost me forty credits.”

Ventress and Maul are laughing. Dooku is holding out his hand with a smug expression, and Savage is grunting as he tosses a credit chip into it. Feral is looking from Fallen Jedi to Fallen Jedi with a worried expression.

“You broke out of the Temple to go fight Sidious and you don’t even know who he is?”

The incredulity in his voice sets Ventress and Maul off again.

“I don’t understand,” Obi-Wan says. “We need to get the troops free of those chips.”

Vos stops and turns around again. “The Chancellor is the Sith Lord.”

Everyone freezes. The sudden aura of pure rage that comes off of them makes even Ventress and Maul stop mid-laugh and take a step back. Feral ducks behind Dooku.

“The. The Chancellor,” Obi-Wan begins.

“Chancellor Palpatine from Naboo is Darth Sidious?” Master Windu says. His voice is surprisingly calm.

“Yes. I have multiple recorded holocalls from him, datasticks of information on Republic movements he sent me while I was still commanding the Separatist armies, and lots of other incriminating information,” Dooku says gleefully. “All ready to be broadcast across the holonet whenever it is the right time to do so.”

Barriss watches as Master Windu takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. When he opens them again, they’re pure gold, and his Force-aura is so bright with _fury_ and _betrayal_ and _protectiveness_ and _love_ that it hurts her brain to try and comprehend it.

“Let’s go,” he hisses.

Luminara pulls her into the middle of the back of the group as they exit the abandoned warehouse, their shields pulled down tight to hide as much of themselves in the Force as they can. It feels a little weird to be walking with her former Master in front of her, tense for battle, and a Zabrak with a double-bladed lightsaber on his belt and an enormous rifle strapped to his back behind her, but it also feels oddly safe.

She glances at the Zabrak beside her. He’s the smallest one, the one that hid behind Dooku when their collective shields fell for a moment, and also the one wearing the least armor. He’s carrying a very nice sniper rifle and she can see a small hilt that’s probably a lightsaber of some kind, but he’s dressed in the least armor of all of them. More of a spy than a fighter, then.

He smiles shyly at her. “Feral,” he says, offering her his hand.

She takes it and it pleasantly surprised by the amount of grey she feels in him. “Barriss.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise.” She thinks of meeting Ahsoka again for the first time as padawans in the sand and rock and looks forward again, setting her jaw. Her good mood at having all their heavy secrets out in the open is thoroughly gone now. Ahsoka should be here.

Sidious stole her from her.

“Let’s go fuck up that disgusting old man,” she says.

Feral reflects her own smile back at her. It’s a snarl.

The Jedi are done with being peacekeepers.

**Author's Note:**

> i really really appreciate everyone who comments or leaves kudos or bookmarks, especially those of you who write descriptions on the bookmarks. that's awesome to read. honestly this whole thing was meant to be a one-shot but i got such a lovely response from people that i decided to continue it to see where it would go and it's been really really fun. hope you enjoy reading this weird au as much i enjoy writing it. which is quite a bit. :)


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